Letters to Barron’s

October 21, 2017

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Trusting Computers

To the Editor: One of the things that struck me in reading the Echoes of ’87 pieces in the Oct. 14 issue, is that the more we learn, the less we seem to know. Whether it’s portfolio insurance, credit default swaps, or the wildfire spread of exchange-traded funds, we seem to blindly trust computers and metrics to keep things perfectly balanced. While it is true that computer algorithms have indeed become extremely sophisticated and useful tools, when we subjugate human reasoning and judgment to semiconductors, we are once again looking for trouble. I truly worry how the plethora of basically untested...

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